Serious Auto CoolGlo Gauge Faces

A replacement for the factory gauge faces on your
instrument cluster. During the day, they are "typical" white-faced
gauges. During the night, they have the indi-glo appearance that you commonly
see on wristwatches. The gauges can be dimmed and there's a switch that lets you
choose between a blue and a green color.

The gauges were on backorder for a long time (about 2-3
months). Once Serious Auto got them in, I received the set in 3 days. They
included their own installation instructions with the set. The instructions are
very thorough and easy to understand. It took me about an hour or so to install
the gauges. If you've installed gauges before, it'll be much quicker. The gauge
faces actually overlay the existing stock gauge faces and you have to install a
transformer in the steering column. You also have to install a dimmer switch and
connect it to the fuse box. Once installed, the most difficult thing for me was
to calibrate the gauges. The hardest one was the speedometer. Serious Auto
recommends that you mark the positions of the needles on a warmed-up engine or
take a picture of it. This didn't help for the speedometer. I actually paced my
wife's car and adjusted the needle while she read of her speedometer over the
cell phone!

One thing I also noticed was that Serious Auto recommended
that the wire be hooked up to the radio fuse. This made the faces light up the
entire time the car was on (you can't really see the glow during daylight unless
you're in a tunnel). However, I only wanted the glowing to occur when my
headlights were on so I connected the gauge to one of the headlight fuses. The
quality of the product is excellent. During the day time, the gauges look like
regular white-faced gauges. The markings and workmanship are very good. Even if
they didn't glow at night, the would have made me very happy. When the CoolGlo
is on at night, it's even better! The color is what I expected and the light
dissipation is even. There are no hotspots or dark areas at all! If you paint
your needles a fluorescent color, the original backlighting makes that glow as
well! Overall I would highly recommend this product to anyone interested in
considering this product.

Serious Auto Gauge Faces (RS Roadster)

As for quality, I am fairly impressed especially compared to some
other replacement faces I've seen. The price of $95 U.S. adds even more value.

There are absolutely no hotspots anywhere on the illuminated parts
of this set. This will vary a little due to quality control tolerances, but mine is
perfect. The actual color of the faces is beautiful- not quite as bright and stand-outish
as pure white but they still offer enough contrast to attract the proper attention. They
nicely compliment the spun Voodoo knob and satin vent rings installed earlier.
Installation was a breeze. The only part that could be considered anything other was
realigning the needles and even that took less than 30 seconds. Mazda really did have us
in mind when designing the Miata. The install was done on a '96 White/Tan LE.

I ordered these faces on Nov. 9, 1999 and recieved them Jan. 21,
2000 though I still highly recommend Serious Auto for any purchase. Vendor problems can
scar the reputation of any retail distributor and I commend their honesty and
professionalism concerning the matter. Afer recieving the faces in Calif., Serious had
them to me in old Ga. in 2 days. Usually takes about a week coast to coast.